This weekend the Juniors traveled across the lake for some competition in Lake Placid, the site of this season’s Junior National Championships. With the Eastern Cup on hiatus for a week, this Saturday and Sunday was actually a Mid-Atlantic JNQ weekend, although Saturday’s out-of-region designation for NENSA meant there were familiar faces from SMS, Craftsbury, Dublin, and other New England teams. It was also fun to see some familiar faces we haven’t bumped into in a while such as HURT Nordic!
Fast skis start at the wax bench
What’s more, Saturday’s race was combined with day 2 of the SLU Carnival, so the field was extra competitive and a TON of racers got to experience the true pain of the Ladies 5k, the notorious race loop at Mount Van Hoevenburg!
The action kicked off from our now-usual departure spot of Buffalo Wild Wings, and after a nice ski of the brutally challenging course we gathered for dinner at our rental house. Italian food was the name of the game for the weekend: thanks to all the parents who contributed such great items and dishes!
Dinner with the crew
Downright balmy temps meant the MNC race suit was mainly represented by the bottoms only, as most everyone raced in a T-shirt. Gloves were very sparsely seen as well, and we were pretty much in full spring-skiing mode in January.
Coach Adam and Coach Sara even got in on the action (and the glitter! Gary Solow photo)
Dingo repping the XL Pug suit (Gary Solow photo)
It was a bit of a mixed bag of results for our crew: after an amazing weekend at Waterville we talked about keeping the fire burning and remembering that everything won’t always fall into place. What was really impressive was how racers who’d had good days kept in good spirits, and racers who’d ended their day wanting more kept in just as good spirits.
Timmy made good on his seed (bib #1) by winning the U16 race on Saturday (Gary Solow photo)
After exploring downtown Lake Placid and doing a little post-dinner yoga (streamed live on Instagram for lucky viewers), we discussed the plan for Sunday and got pumped with an inspirational reading from the new book “The Keys” by DJ Khaled (Chapter 1: We The Best). With plenty of confidence we went to bed in order to, in the words of Mr. Khaled, “rest our greatness”.
We woke to even more slush and dirt than day 1, but that didn’t slow anyone down. The day started off stronger than ever with Magda taking the win in the U16 girls race! She started in bib 5 and came through the first of two laps having already caught all but one competitor ahead of her, and even Dave the announcer was calling her victory just by watching her ski. Way to go Swags!
Magda rocking the top step!
Even though the race got changed to another freestyle individual start (instead of the intended mass start classic) a totally new course skied much differently due to the relative flatness compared to the previous day. This race was all about staying smooth and keeping the hammer down as long as possible since recovery was hard to come by. The twisty turns and numerous transitions actually felt a lot like the Range. That seemed to suit Eliza well as she had a good race and made it 2 for 2 in solid efforts for the weekend.
Eliza chased down several college ladies en route to a strong finish! (photo by Gary Solow)
Warner hitting full send (photo by Gary Solow)
Coach Sara brought some glitter and body paint so you can imagine what the end result was!
With each weekend the Pugs seem to be growing in both confidence and camaraderie. It’s been so fun to watch this group train hard all summer and fall, and when a big weekend comes together it really shows how close-knit everyone has become. Can’t wait for Rikert!
Saturday Results on Bart Timing
Pug art on the whiteboard!
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